You’re right about the 12″ Powerbook G4 – it was (and still is) a damn fine specimen!
I just couldn’t afford it as the student I was at the time – had the iBook G4 in its place. That was a damn good bargain back then! (About ~$AU2k cheaper than its nearest brand-name competitors)
It was after the G4, like a fancier MacBook or smaller MacBook Pro. Some of what I said about it was true. It did get rid of most of the ports and the optical drive in favor of wireless, but it does have a couple of peripheral ports and an external DVD option. It is mostly a traditional laptop, however, and many people do use it as their main computer.
So, the Air wasn’t the revolution I was waiting for, but we now know that it just wasn’t quite ready to be unveiled yet.
What I was wrong about was the idea that it would be used to remote control a bigger home computer. It makes sense, now, knowing it has a touch screen. Using regular Mac programs that way, especially shrunken down to fit a smaller screen, would be difficult. That said, I don’t think they’ve solved the problem of keeping data in sync across multiple devices. From what I’ve read, it’s absurdly complicated and painful with the iPad, and their MobileMe online service hasn’t gotten any better.
Later in 2008 I got the unibody 13″ MacBook, which was the first real successor to the 12″ G4. I haven’t bought an iPad, but I’ll probably end up getting next year’s model.
You’re right about the 12″ Powerbook G4 – it was (and still is) a damn fine specimen!
I just couldn’t afford it as the student I was at the time – had the iBook G4 in its place. That was a damn good bargain back then! (About ~$AU2k cheaper than its nearest brand-name competitors)
To be clear, the Air was just the same basic thing as the G4 in a thinner package, right?
Still, incredible foresight.
It was after the G4, like a fancier MacBook or smaller MacBook Pro. Some of what I said about it was true. It did get rid of most of the ports and the optical drive in favor of wireless, but it does have a couple of peripheral ports and an external DVD option. It is mostly a traditional laptop, however, and many people do use it as their main computer.
So, the Air wasn’t the revolution I was waiting for, but we now know that it just wasn’t quite ready to be unveiled yet.
What I was wrong about was the idea that it would be used to remote control a bigger home computer. It makes sense, now, knowing it has a touch screen. Using regular Mac programs that way, especially shrunken down to fit a smaller screen, would be difficult. That said, I don’t think they’ve solved the problem of keeping data in sync across multiple devices. From what I’ve read, it’s absurdly complicated and painful with the iPad, and their MobileMe online service hasn’t gotten any better.
Later in 2008 I got the unibody 13″ MacBook, which was the first real successor to the 12″ G4. I haven’t bought an iPad, but I’ll probably end up getting next year’s model.